Ministers' war over rooms puts DPAR, PWD in fix

Two Cabinet ministers – D K Shivakumar and H Anjaneya – were on the warpath on Friday.

Reason: Both wanted to occupy their ‘lucky’ and ‘vaastu’-compliant rooms at Vidhana Soudha.

Energy Minister Shivakumar, who took oath as minister on Wednesday, is learnt to have zeroed in on room numbers 340, 340A and 341 on the third floor of Vidhana Soudha, facing east. A group of astrologers is learnt to have helped him identify the rooms. He made an oral request to the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR) to allot the rooms to him. Shivakumar has, however, flatly denied having sought the rooms.

The DPAR had already recently allotted them to Social Welfare Minister Anjaneya, who wanted to shift from the present room numbers 335 and 336, facing north, to the ‘lucky’ ones. He had asked the DPAR and the PWD to renovate and furnish them. It is said that he had asked the PWD to merge 340 with 340A by demolishing the partition wall.

On learning that Shivakumar has set his eyes on ‘lucky’ rooms, Anjaneya turned furious. He took the PWD engineer concerned to task for not taking up the renovation work.

“I will get the wall demolished myself, if you (the engineer) fail to do so. I will stage a dharna, if the renovation is not done,” he warned, when the official expressed his helplessness. The minister ordered his office staff to immediately shift the office to the newly-allotted rooms, apparently fearing that Shivakumar would get the rooms for himself. When contacted, Shivakumar claimed that he was not particular about any room. “Anjaneya is a senior leader. Let him occupy the room which he wants. I have not written a letter to the DPAR seeking any room,” he told reporters.

Asked whether he was going by ‘vaastu’ to occupy a particular room, he said, “I took oath of office on amavasye day. So, I am not going by any vaastu.” In the evening, he met the chief minister and held a discussion regarding the room allotment.

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